It was about twenty feet from
the ground, and was built with moss, leaves, and all kinds of truck, and
as warm and as snug as you please--a good place to spend a winter in."
The brown and polar bears have the same habit of lying up for the
winter. An Esquimau informed Captain Lyon that in the first of the
winter the pregnant bears are always fat and solitary. When a heavy fall
of snow sets in the animal seeks some hollow place in which she can lie
down, and remains quiet while the snow covers her. Sometimes she will
wait until a quantity of snow has fallen and then digs herself a cave;
at all events it seems necessary that she should be covered up by the
snow. She now goes to sleep and does not wake until the spring sun is
pretty high, when she brings forth two cubs. The cave by this time has
become much larger by the effect of the animal's warmth and breath, so
that the cubs have room enough to move, and they acquire considerable
strength by continually sucking. The dam at length becomes so thin and
weak that it is with great difficulty she extricates herself, which she
does when the sun is powerful enough to throw a strong glare through
the snow which roofs the den.
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